Peta Credlin: Australians deserve to be told truth on quarantine

Coronavirus escaping hotel quarantine is a constant fear for state premiers who want Canberra to take the blame for their own inadequacies.

Every Australian deserves to know the truth about hotel quarantine given it’s all that stands between us and another outbreak of COVID-19.

For months, premiers have been playing the politics of this pandemic for all it’s worth but now, given repeated failures in their state-run quarantine hotels, they fear judgment against their own zero infection standard and want out.

Last March, when mandatory quarantine was first agreed by national cabinet, it was Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews who claimed hotel quarantine was his bright idea. Back then, the states were quick to tell the Prime Minister they needed to be in charge, given that quarantine would interface with their health systems, contact tracing and law enforcement

Of course, before their various state elections, the premiers crowed about how tough their rules were, and how they had kept “their people safe”. Now that it’s clear quarantine will be with us for some time yet, and the risk of virus escape is a constant fear for premiers (other than NSW’s Gladys Berejiklian). Having made “elimination” their benchmark, they want to avoid judgment against the standard they’ve set themselves.

A parcel of Commonwealth-owned land the Victorian state government wants to use as a quarantine facility for overseas passengers. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Andrew Henshaw

So suddenly, it should all be Scott Morrison’s responsibility and it’s up to the Commonwealth to assume both the cost and risk of hotel quarantine.

Nothing exposed this shameless politicking like last week’s announcement by the Victorian government of a new $200 million-plus purpose-built quarantine facility — spin over substance or, as my Dad might have said, “all hat and no cowboy”.

Back in February, following the state’s third lockdown, Daniel Andrews declared an end to hotel-based quarantine by saying he would build specialist facilities to more securely hold returning travellers and to prevent the virus leakage that had so devastated his state, killing over 800 Victorians last year. When asked about the plans, Andrews said work was already under way, with potential sites being investigated, and that he was doing “more than just scoping it; we are going to get on and build a facility”.

Fast-forward to last Thursday’s big announcement by Acting Premier James Merlino (who is now actively auditioning for Andrews’ job while he’s off sick) and it’s a pure hoax.

On the table is just $15 million to design and plan a facility on federal land currently used by the Commonwealth for animal quarantine. The Morrison government, Merlino says, must pay hundreds of millions in construction costs, despite not being given any detail before the announcement.

Nor was the local council, which is lukewarm to say the least.

Even the country’s quarantine expert, Dr Jane Halton, wasn’t consulted on Victoria’s plan, which is a worry given the state’s appalling track record on quarantine.

Peta Credlin.

Like Victoria, with their elections safely out of the way Labor governments in WA and Queensland also want to transfer quarantine costs and risk onto Scott Morrison. None of them trust themselves to deal with any virus escape — and they can’t live with the risk their elimination strategy might fail. Hence their demand that the Commonwealth take it over so any virus breakout is Scott Morrison’s problem, as he goes to an election within 12 months.

It’s true that, under the constitution, the Commonwealth has responsibility for quarantine — but only if it chooses to exercise it.

Likewise, under the constitution, the Commonwealth is responsible for determining entry into Australia. But that hasn’t stopped the states making their own rules, which have turned out to be inconsistent and arbitrary and have made it impossible for any nationally run system to operate.

If states really do expect the Prime Minister to take over the quarantine system they previously demanded be run by them, then they should also be prepared to give up their state border restrictions. Otherwise it’s nothing more than the usual games played by states to cost-shift to the Commonwealth. If we really were to run this country based on the letter of the constitution, states should be funding their own public hospitals and public schools, which currently receive billions from Canberra.

Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino is auditioning for Daniel Andrews’ job. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Andrew Henshaw

Likewise roads. And public transport. And — I could go on.

There is no doubt that, one way or another, mandatory quarantine will be with us for a while yet, despite vaccinations. Trusting the states, other than NSW, with this responsibility is fraught with risk. But only someone ignorant of how our health systems operate in practice could argue that the Commonwealth should run quarantine facilities without also operating the testing and tracing systems and the public hospitals where people with life-threatening COVID are treated.

I don’t know about you but 12 months into this pandemic, I’m sick of the political games and I’m sick of state governments that treat us as though we’re stupid when in fact we can see straight through them.

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Originally published as Peta Credlin: Australians deserve to be told truth on quarantine